a Silmarillion movie?

[Elvellon]

I’m certain that this was already asked, but whit the FOTR movie and with many new members this question becomes again relevant:

Could a movie be done from any of the Silmarillion tales?
What tale would you like to see in a movie?

[ragamuffin92]

Whew!! You scared me for a second there, Elvellon. I thought you were proposing that someone should make a movie of the WHOLE Silmarillion.
IMHO, the story that would translate best to the big screen would be the tale of Beren, Luthien and the Silmaril. It's got romance, adventure, suspense, spirituality, and lots of action.
For people who like moodier, Hamlet-esque tragedies, the story of Túrin (The Black Sword) Turambar might win something at the Cannes Film Festival.

[Elvellon]

I agree with you ragamuffin92, but what can be done with “ The Fall of Gondolin”? Perhaps a war movie?

[markedel]

The Quenta Silmarillion is doable as a series of short films. The idea of the Valaquenta as a fantasia sequence would be cool.

[noldorlord]

Markedel you've hit it bang on the nail. The silmarrillion is too vivid in my opinion to be done in one live action movie. It would be better to do it in a series of animations, perhaps one for each chapter or tale. The valaquenta would be amazing in a Fantasia style. It would still be hard to make though because to a lot of people it is the hardest of Tolkien's books to read, therefore the hardest to translate to film.

[markedel]

The hardest reading is the book of lost tales. I'll have to try that again...that was extremely perplexing.

[MasterMothra]

i would like to see the beginnings of me. maybe the wars of the valar against melkor. that would be cool.

[FrodoFriend]

I could definitely go for Turin on screen. I think a Silmarillion mini-series would be absolutely faaaaaaaaabulous! But who would make it? You'd have to be a very dedicated Tolkien fan and have lots of money.

[ragamuffin92]

Re: You'd have to be a very dedicated Tolkien fan and have lots of money.
Well, one of of two ain't bad...

[Mithrandir]

If there was a movie for the Silmarillion, it would be great if they included the music of the Ainur and the creation of the world of Arda. The music would definitely be very powerful and I'm sure the soundtrack would have to be well made.

[fungilorde]

I think akallabeth would be a great film, the reshaping of a world is usually a big hit.

[CardenIAntauraNauco]

The problem with a mini-series would be the small cash of most TV networks. The CGI would be horrible and you would need alot of it for any one of the battles/creatures/palaces/valar/etc..
a tv show couldn't cover that.

I'd say Beren and Luthien are your best bet. Turin is a wonderful part of the book, but I don't think modern audiences will watch somthing sad for the sake of drama. I guess it's a little to emotionaly realistic for movies. The good guy has to many bad characteristics.

[Renille]

Yeah...probably Beren and Luthien. It's the most like traditional "fairy tales." Though the fantasia Valaquenta idea is wonderful, too. But I don't know if I'd even watch a Silm. movie. The stories are too sophistacated and ethereal too be adequately portrayed on the television. ( Wait, who am I kidding??? I'd see it 10 times!)

[noldorlord]

Of course, with that sort of budget cgi would be poor. That is why I think that animation (ie cartoon) would be better. Then you could get more styliesed imagery and get the ethos across. I think people could attempt to get the whole book down in several short 15 min cartoons.

[Tuor]

am working on script ideas at the moment -
Trying to work out what would be feasible and what works best.

I think the only way any part of the sillmarillion could be translated to the cinema would be to concentrate on one of the longer. more complete stories. Even then there is very little dialoge in the treatments -

What would make a good film?

Tale of Beren and Luthien?
The fall of Gondolin ( Of tour and his coming to Gondolin)?
Tale of the children of Hurin?

These really are the only close to full narratives that tolkein completed - and of those I lean toward the tale of Beren and Luthien. It has adventure, danger, battle scenes and a love story...elements which make it easier to pitch to a studio producer...

Both Gondolin and the Narn i chin Hurin, end in utter defeat - Gondlin only works if you take the tale on to êarendil, Elwing and the War of Wrath. Even ending with Tuor's voyage to Valinor is difficult to explain unless you have the whole magnificent history....

What do you think? -

The Tale of Luthien is the greatest of the first age in terms of its significance in the recovery of of the silmaril...it also encompasses many of the core elements of the Sillmarillion. In effect the film would become an independent prequel with characters that the larger public of the LOTR are aquainted. But it would also give us insigt into the Tolkeins greatest love - the heroic saga of the Elves' war against evil in middleearth in the first age.

I mean:

1 Doriath, seat of the Beleriandic Sindarin culture. We get to see apart from Beren and Luthien - Menegroth in its "noontide", a look into the Sindarin world which shaped Middle earth for thousands of years. We meet Thingol, Melian (of the race of the Ainur..!) Galadriel - even Celeborn(?)

2 Nargothrond - One of the greatest Noldorian kingdoms in the first age - Finrod, Orodreth, the sons of Feanor and Huan the hound of Valinor.

3 Sauron - in the beginning.
Beren and Finrods capture by Sauron and Luthiens defeat of him at Tol Sirion
matches maiar henchman of Melkor against duaghter of Melian the maiar. The greater public knows Sauron from TLOTR trilogy.

4 Morgoth - we enter his throne room, watch as Luthien enchants them to sleep and as Beren wrests a silmaril!

5 The nature of Elven immortality ( serial longevity) and human "death".

6 The founding of the bloodline of Elrond ( and Aragorn) through the first bonding of Men, Elf, Maiar - that changed the course of history...

Its all there but...

Studio execs needs one liners. The Tale of Beren and Luthien could be described as Hero meets girl - loses girl - gets girl---
heroic triumph against good and evil......Tale of love over "racial/class" boundaries...It a complicatedinterplay of elements and with the proper screenplay need not be dumbed down for the cinema - in fact the sence of history and culture only auguments the "action" of the main storyline.

It works..I think . let me know what you think

Next BIG question...Who has the film rights?

[azalea]

I think if treated as an epic film, using a narrator to tie it together, it could be done. I am reading it now and I see it as a series of interlocking stories within the main story of the birth of a world and the struggles of the early dwellers there against evil, and the struggles that develop among the dwellers as a result of the evil. There have been movies done that encompass such a scope, focusing on a few different stories within the main story frame, using those to tie it together. A narrator would inform the viewer what happens from one storyline to the next. It could be the "elf" who actually writes The Silmarillion as that peoples' history. Marketed well, it could draw a lot of people, and if the movie is done very well, I think it would be fabulous. It could really be done as a movie series, but that might be a harder sell.

[Cirdan]

The difficulty with many of the Silmarillion tales as movies is that they are tragic. LotR has the big happy ending that most americans expect from a film. I agree with most of the previous posts as to which tales are the most marketable. The difficulty is the amount of backround information that is the common thread throughout the book as a whole. The rise and fall of the Numenoreans might be reworkable as a tie-in to the LotR and the rise of Gondor as a sort of "prequel". It would be critical to make the tie-in for the requisite financial aspect to be fulfilled.

[Nienna Grey]

I'd quite like to see it done as a series of movies, I don't think it would work if the entire thing was put together at once.

If each section was done separately many of them would be long enough to create a whole full-length film and full justice could be done to them all.

I wonder what Peter Jackson's doing after he finishes all his work on the LOTR movies in a couple of years .....

[noldorlord]

I still believe that animation (digital or drawn) would be the only way to do a series of silmarilion films because of the infinite possibilities. Especially doing the creation et al

[Samwise Gamgee]

Cirdan! No! LoTR, a 'big, happy ending'. Did you read the same LoTR as me? It's a tragedy! Seriously. Everytime I get to the end I shed a tear. Not just because I got to the end, but because of how heart-rending the ending is. The Shire, desecrated and destroyed by evil. It will never return to the way it was that fateful day Gandalf turned up at Bag-End. The Shire is at the end of the book a different Shire than the one we first meet in The Hobbit. It has grown and learned that the tales of dragons, warriors and goblins aren't just myths-they can affect the hobbits. But with their knowledge it changes The Shire, you could say like Aragorn & Gandalf are changed by the weight of the knowledge of the danger they face.
And then Sam. Dear, beloved Sam. Seperated from his beloved master as he sails West. I know it's for the best, but the beautiful poignency of 'Well, I'm home.' will, for me, always be a bittersweet line. Sam has lost perhaps the biggest part of his life in Frodo.
So, the end of LoTR is sad not only because with it comes the knowledge it's all over, but also because we see the change and repercussions evil has had.
PS-I no this is more LoTR than Silamrillion, bt had 2 b sed. Ne thoughts?
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